Women of the Night

Unclassified 15+

Yoru no onnatachi

Mizoguchi’s often blistering and bracingly neo-realistic drama is a candid and compassionate portrait of women at the bottom of the social pile struggling to make ends meet amongst the devastation of post-war Japan

Kenji Mizoguchi’s often blistering and bracingly neo-realistic drama is a candid and compassionate portrait of women at the bottom of the social pile struggling to make ends meet amongst the devastation of post-war Japan. Based on Eijiro Hisaita’s contemporaneous novel, and shot in Osaka’s notorious Shinsekai district, it follows the trials and tribulations of two sisters whose lives are torn apart by the forces of poverty and exploitation. More immediate than many of Mizoguchi’s other films, it features a towering central performance by Kinuyo Tanaka as the tenacious sister who loses her husband in the war as well as her child to tuberculosis.

NONE: Kenji Mizoguchi

ACTRESS: Kinuyo Tanaka

Duration: 75 mins

Country: Japan

Language: Japanese with English Subtitles

Date: 1948

Format: 35 mm, Black & White

Courtesy: Shochiku

Source: Shochiku

Rating: Unclassified 15+

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